Show me the spicy love!! As someone who once turned away from spicy food, how it is that I now whole heartedly embrace it is truly a mystery to me. I’m not sure when it happened or how it happened but I sure am glad it did. Now, I am not someone who can actually eat the set your face on fire type of spicy food but my little goes a long way and I feel that I can at least hold my own at a dinner table filled with alpha males and their copius amounts of testosterone, beer and hot wing challenges. Fast forward from THAT and what we have to talk about today is a bit more refined and whole lot more delicious .. Spicy Thai Chicken with Coconut Lime Quinoa.

(happy dance)

This dish just makes me so happy. In the interest of trying to incorporate some healthier food options into our diet, I am trying to add some new ideas into our weekly rut of chicken dinners. We all know that rut, we have all been there. Not that our tried and true chicken recipes are not amazing but sometimes you need to spicy up a Wednesday. This Spicy Thai Chicken with Coconut Lime Quinoa is your mid-week wake up call. Who doesn’t want tender, moist chicken baked and covered in a spicy thai sauce and then served up over creamy coconut lime quinoa? I double dog dare you to say that your mouth didn’t just start watering a bit after reading that. Who am I kidding .. mine did!!

WHAT IS THAI CHICKEN?

The secret to Thai dishes is a balance of five flavors: sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy. Chicken simmered in a sweet thai sauce brings such flavor to the chicken and cooking the chicken in the sauce keeps it moist and tender.

HOW SPICY IS THAI CHICKEN?

You control your own destiny on this one. There is spicy to thai food, it wouldn’t be thai chicken without a spicy element to it. But how much of that hot spicy flavor you add is up to you. You can tone it down if you like or amp it up if you are a glutton for punishment.

HOW DO YOU MAKE SPICY THAI CHICKEN WITH COCONUT LIME QUINOA?

Easy!! To make this Spicy Thai Chicken with Coconut Lime Quinoa, start by preheating the oven to 400 degreesmaking your sauce. In a medium saucepan combine the chili sauce, soy sauce, minced garlic, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, lime juice and sriracha and bring to a low boil over medium high heat.

While your sauce is cooking, add olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium high heat. You can also use a grill pan if you have one. Add chicken breasts and cook for 3-4 minutes a side before moving the chicken breasts to a 9 x 9 baking dish. Pour 3/4 of the chili sauce over the chicken and then move the baking pan to the oven to cook for 20 minutes. While your chicken is cooking, make your coconut lime quinoa.

Add 2 cups of uncooked quinoa, one can of coconut milk and chicken stock to a medium sized sauce pan, cover and cook per package instruction cooking times. Once cooked, squeeze and stir in juice of two limes. When your chicken has cooked and your quinoa is done, serve up your quinoa on a big family platter, add the chicken and drizzle on the remaining sauce. Garnish with chopped peanuts and cilantro.

um.. yeah …. those chopped peanuts are honestly my favorite part. (gasp!!) What about the tender chicken? This spicy sauce? The creamy coconut quinoa??? Yes, yes… the dish is amazing but trust me.. those peanuts are the bomb diggity!

Looking for more easy chicken dinner ideas? Check a few of my favorites below.

To make this Spicy Thai Chicken with Coconut Lime Quinoa, start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees and then start making your sauce. In a medium saucepan combine the chili sauce, soy sauce, minced garlic, rice wine vinegar, brown sugar, lime juice and sriracha and bring to a low boil over medium high heat.

While your sauce is cooking, add olive oil to a large skillet and heat over medium high heat. You can also use a grill pan if you have one. Add chicken breasts and cook for 3-4 minutes a side before moving the chicken breasts to a 9 x 9 baking dish.

Pour 3/4 of the chili sauce over the chicken and then move the baking pan to the oven to cook for 20 minutes. While your chicken is cooking, make your coconut lime quinoa. Add 2 cups of uncooked quinoa, one can of coconut milk and chicken stock to a medium sized sauce pan, cover and cook per package instruction cooking times. Once cooked, squeeze and stir in juice of two limes.

Once your chicken has cooked and your quinoa is done, serve up your quinoa on a big family platter, add the chicken and drizzle on the remaining sauce. Garnish with chopped peanuts and cilantro.

One of my favorite restaurants in New Orleans making the most amazing Thai chicken and since then I’ve been on a journey trying recipes and making them at home. and this one is next on my list I love the added quinoa as a side instead of rice, too!

I just started cooking with quinoa more and this is great for variation and trying something new! I’ve always just used it as a rice substitute and flavored it with herbs garlic etc, but that gets boring quick!

Yum! Love the combo of all the sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and spicy flavors. Would love this for a weeknight dinner.

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About A Wicked Whisk…

Hi! We are Heather and Michael.. Welcome to our site! A Wicked Whisk is a sometimes quirky, always friendly food blog sharing quick, easy to make recipes ready to eat in 30 minutes or less ..
except on slow cooker days :)
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